After the introduction of magnetic strip cards, attempts were made to find a new way to overcome the disadvantages of magnetic strip cards. A smart card is one such improved storage medium, which has sufficiently large and long-life storage capabilities. The use of integrated storage media with a high storage capacity and integrated security logic in a smart card in consequence represents a significant improvement over magnetic strip cards.
Fields of application for smart cards are, for example, telephone smart cards, GSM cards (“Global System for Mobile Communication”), medical insurance cards as well as smart cards as identification verification (for example prepaid cards).
A smart card contains a mount element (for example composed of plastic) in which an integrated circuit is provided in an electronic chip, thus providing the actual functionality of the smart card. According to the prior art, external contact is made with a smart card using gold pads with which a reader can make contact, for example by means of read contacts, thus allowing them to be electrically driven.
According to the prior art, gold pads are used as contact surfaces whose color is permanently predetermined by the material (to be precise gold) in smart card products.
However, smart card products that are known from the prior art have the disadvantage that the color of the contact-making elements must be gold. Another disadvantage of smart card products which are known from the prior art is that the security of such smart card products is frequently not sufficiently good, so that smart cards according to the prior art are not sufficiently resistant to falsification.
Coyle, S. et al. (2001) “Confined Plasmons in Metallic Nanocavities” Physical Review Letters 87(17): 176801-1 to 176801-4 discloses the excitation of plasmons in metallic nanocavities.